STAUFFACHERS [Pg
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
On the History of the Glarner Families, Particularly Those of the Sernf Valley. A Medley of Pictures from Past Days. (Zur Geschichte glarnerischer Geschlechter, derjenigen des Sernftales insbesondere. Allerlei Bilder aus vergangenen Tagen) by Gottfried Heer With a Coat of Arms Printing and publishing by Rud. Tschudy, Glarus, 1920 Translated by Sue Wolf [All lettered footnotes and information in brackets were added by the translator] X. THE STAUFFACHERS [pg. 94-113] “At the same time there was in [Canton] Schwyz one who was named Staupacher and who lived at Steinen on this side of the bridge. He had built a beautiful stone house. Now at that time a Gessler was overlord there, in the [Habsburg] empire's name. One day he came and rode past there and summoned Staupacher and asked him who the beautiful dwelling belonged to. Staupacher answered him and spoke unhappily: Gracious Lord, it is yours, and my fiefa, and dared not say that it was his; he dreaded the lord so much. The lord rode on from there. Now Staupacher was an intelligent man, and also enterprising; he also had an intelligent wife, and he thought the matter over and, for this reason, had great concern and was worried because of the lord, that he would destroy his life and property. His wife noticed this and did as wives still do today and had wondered what was the matter with him or why he was unhappy. That he would not tell her. Finally she pleaded with him with many questions, that he tell her his concern, and spoke: Be so good and tell me your trouble, although they say: Wives give indifferent advice ̶ who knows what God will do! In any case, she asked him so much in their intimacy that he told her what his concern was. She went to him and encouraged him by her urging and spoke: It is indeed to help him; and asked him whether he did not know someone in [Canton] Uri who was so familiar to him that he could pour out his trouble to him, and told him of the Fürst family and the Zur Frauen family. He answered her: Yes, he knew it well, and thought over his wife's advice, and went to Uri and remained there until he found someone who also had the same concern. She had also urged him to ask in [Canton] Unterwalden; because she thought there were also people there who unwillingly endured such oppression.” Thus reports to us the “Chronicle” of the White Book, which was written about the year 1470 and which is found today in the State Archives in Sarnen [earlier Canton Unterwalden, now Canton Obwalden]. Principally on the basis of these White Book reports, after that, in the following 16th century, our famous cantonal citizen, Aegid. Tschudi, had reported again, with some literary ornaments, the history of the 3 confederates, the founders of the first Swiss Federation, Walter a Fief - property or rights granted by an overlord to a vassal in return for the vassal's service to the lord. The vassal could use the fief as long as he remained loyal to the lord. The fief was the central institution of the feudal society. [SW] Fürst, Werner Stauffacher and Arnold from the Melch valley [Canton Unterwalden]; and, on the basis of these reports of Aegidius Tschudi, after that, the great author, Friedrich Schiller, in his “Wilhelm Tell”, again had sketched for us the character of one Werner Stauffacher and his intelligent spouse and counselor, Gertrude Stauffacher, from Steinen, that you are all acquainted with. On the other hand, you also know that for more than 50 years a great dispute held sway among the scholars, not only over the authenticity of the marksman, William Tell, but also about the characters of Walter Fürst, Werner Stauffacher and Arnold from the Melch valley. There is also no shortage today of those who also accept everything that Tschudi and Schiller reported to us of Werner Stauffacher solely as fiction. However, with that the historical critic might yet go too far. Not only can many a thing yet be truth that is not written down on parchment pages (the earlier centuries were not yet so paper-rich and so fond of writing as our time, and thus many an important event might happen without it being recorded immediately). But also, the most mundane documents produce the proof that the family of the Stauffachers, or Staupachers, as the White Book spells the name, were situated during several generations on the peaks of Old Canton Schwyz1. The brothers, Werner and Heinrich Stauffacher, who alternately held the office of district overseer from 1309-1338, were the sons of a Rudolf of Stauffacher, who had already held the same office in 1275. The father of this Rudolf Stauffacher was, however, unquestionably that Werner of Stauffach who, in a 1267 document, was already referred to as “the older”, who, therefore, was certainly no longer a boy at the rebellion of 1247. An authentic certified representative of the Stauffachers in Canton Schwyz, then, is, by no means, lacking. On the other hand, the question is whether the Stauffachers of the Sernf [river] valley [Canton Glarus] are related to the Stauffachers from Schwyz2. The tradition affirms it. Tradition has it that the Schwyzer Stauffachers were supposed to have come over the Pragel [pass] to Glarus in 1528. If this tradition is correct, thus the conjecture suggests itself that the emigration (or flight) to Glarus was a result of the religious movement of that time. From Zürich, the Evangelical doctrine also found followers in Canton Schwyz3. However, as the V old cantonsb had also demanded from Glarus that they should remain with the “old genuine Christian customs”, with the Mass, the veneration of the saints, etc.,4 and as, in 1529, a Pastor Kaiser, from Schwerzenbach [Canton Zürich], who had proclaimed the gospel in its territory of Uznach [now Canton St. Gallen], was captured and sentenced to death, thus they also suppressed all Evangelical movements in their own cantons with extreme harshness. Indeed, on the 29th of May in 1597, at Schwyz, 2 confessors of the Evangelical faith were burned “in A Fire” after a short interrogation. The Stauffachers were inclined to the Evangelical doctrine, thus, for this reason, it was advisable for them to flee over the Pragel to Glarus. 1 August Bernoulli, The Legend of Tell and Stauffacher, pg. 34. Compare with Oechsli, The Beginnings of the Swiss Confederation. 2 That the belief was circulated by the Stauffachers of the Sernf valley that they originated here from the Stauffachers of Steinen is demonstrated by an entry in the Matt baptism book from the year 1716: “Werner Stauffacher, son of Johannes St., of Weissenberg, baptized in 1716, on Oct. 28th. He is named after, and is a descendant of, the first Confederate St.” 3 Compare Finsler, Köhler and Rüegg, Ulrich Zwingli, An Anthology of His Writings, pg. 41 ff. 419. b The V old cantons - Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden [the original 3], plus Luzerne and Zug. These remained Catholic in the Reformation. [SW] 4 G. Heer, The Reformation in Canton Glarus, On The 400th Year Commemoration, pg. 41 ff. Still another link, which crossed over from Arth [Canton Schwyz] to Glarus. In 1903/04, a Mr. Friedr. Hegi, c. h. [Confoederatio Helvetica = Swiss Confederation = Switzerland], who was interested in a doctoral dissertation concerning the Stauffachers, wrote me that Councillor of States Leonh. Blumer had informed him of an Alp regulations document in which a Stauffacher from Arth was named as administrator of the Mühlebach Alp [near Nidwalden, Canton Glarus]. Mr. Hegi requested that I intercede with Councillor of States Blumer, in order to send the document in question to him (and States Archivist Durrer) for inspection. However, Councillor of States Blumer was, at that time, busy with so many things, because of the Sernf valley railway, the Kurhaus Elm [Elm spa-hotel], his own factory establishment, and his Councillor of States seat, that he found no time to search for the document in question. I, for my part, was also a very busy man as pastor of Betschwanden [Canton Glarus], administrator of Braunwald Sanatorium [Canton Glarus], etc., and might also at that time have shown less interest than today in the families of the Sernf valley and the Stauffachers ̶ the matter remains unfinished; indeed, even until today, the cited Alp regulations document from Councillor of States Blumer has not come to my sight, and I also, therefore, do not know whether the information from Mr. Hegi agreed with the truth or whether an error existed. The event sounds not exactly unlikely. From a 1416 Alp document we know that the churches of Arth were in possession of 160 Rinderalps [peaks] of the Mühlebach Alp,5 and this, on the other hand, should be authenticated by the local Stauffacher anniversary book for Arth around the end of the 15th century. That a Stauffacher from Arth was administrator of the Mühlebach Alp, therefore, sounds not so unlikely. However, were that the case, then also a further explanation for the emigration of the Stauffachers to Canton Glarus would be understood by it. Be that as it may, we find the Stauffachers in Glarus around the middle of the 16th century ̶ still not in the Sernf valley, but, indeed, in the capital market-town of Glarus. There, at that time, the establishment6 of a “hospital” (forerunner of the later alms-house) was carried out. In the collection taken up for it 2 Stauffachers also took part: Peter Stauffacher called Murer, 50 Pounds (= 25 Fl.) and Fridly Stauffacher called Maurer, likewise 50 Pounds.